Director, Donor Engagement & Operations

Director, Donor Engagement & Operations

Please note: A cover letter and resume are mandatory for all applications.

As we serve vulnerable youth, all employees working for Covenant House Vancouver must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19. Proof of vaccination status will be required prior to your start date.

About Covenant House Vancouver

Since 1997, Covenant House Vancouver has provided relentless support for youth experiencing, or at-risk of experiencing, homelessness. We provide support to young people age 16 to 24 who have experienced a wide range of early life and ongoing, complex trauma; including physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect. Our purpose is to serve all youth, with absolute respect and unconditional love, to help youth experiencing homelessness, and provide a safe and supportive environment for all youth in need.

Working at Covenant House will be one of the most meaningful things that you’ll do in your life. However, you will be confronted with significant issues in this work and frankly, this work is not for everyone. In the course of doing your work, particularly for those doing frontline work, you will be exposed to the trauma of others. The youth we serve may also experience overdose, physical harm perpetuated by self or others and even death. Because we provide a relational model of care, the harms our youth experience can impact us in varying degrees.

While we provide training for youth workers on avoiding what we call vicarious trauma (namely, the trauma you can experience or take on by hearing other’s traumatic stories), and a generous allowance for counselling, it is still difficult work that can and does take its toll on many employees. Self-awareness and self-care are key. Some candidates and employees decide during the recruiting and probationary periods that this work isn’t for them, and that is totally fair.

We will provide more information on vicarious trauma during recruiting and on-boarding, to help you decide if Covenant House is the place for you.

The Impact the Director, Donor Engagement and Funding Opportunities can make:

This newly created role at Covenant House Vancouver (CHV) is key to advancing philanthropic revenue.

We’re seeking a collaborative, adaptable, and optimistic leader with an entrepreneurial spirit and strong fundraising expertise—especially in donor engagement, recognition, and funding strategies. You’ll lead two existing teams, manage CHV’s Giving Opportunities Menu, and help build a centralized Donor Engagement Hub to support donor funding, engagement, recognition, and gift fulfillment. You’ll also foster a culture of philanthropy across the organization.

Reporting to the Chief Philanthropy Officer, the Director will be part of the Philanthropy Team’s senior leadership group, currently consisting of the Director, Philanthropy & Special Projects and the Director, Leadership Giving.

Together, these two Directors and the CPO are accountable for achieving CHV’s $24.2M fundraising goal.

The Director will also play a crucial role in strategic and operational planning for the Philanthropy team, and their feedback will play into larger planning across CHV. To support their work, the Director will have immediate oversight of both the Volunteers and Gift-in-Kind and Database and Donor Services teams, comprised of two direct reports and a total team of 16.

The Director role has been created to ensure consistency, clear and efficient processes, and best practices needed in a large and sophisticated fundraising operation. With an overall mandate to facilitate the growth of the philanthropy team’s successes, the Director will have a purview to focus on:

Fundraising priorities & donor engagement:

• Working with leaders in Finance, Programs, and Philanthropy to identify areas of greatest need and opportunity for donor investment – particularly for CHV’s largest-capacity prospects.
• Lead and create a donor engagement plan for donors that streamlines prospect management for frontline fundraisers, which may include a review of giving levels and thresholds.
• Develop a focused and dedicated event strategy that best uses CHV’s available resources for event planning and execution.

Efficiencies & Consistency:

• Lead the development of case statement, proposals, and other donor materials to ensure consistency in messaging.
• Identify and strategize on other areas of improvement.

Reporting & Stewardship:

• Ensure back-end systems facilitate donations reporting and tracking, and link to priority needs.
• Develop and implement a donor recognition and stewardship plans, considering elements such as the entire donor journey.

Specific Areas of Responsibility Include:

Donor Engagement & Funding Opportunities

• Explore viable possibilities among the CHV suite of services and facilities.
• Partner with leaders across CHV to identify long-term funding needs aligned with CHV’s mission and operational goals; manage and evolve CHV’s funding opportunities framework with compelling cases for support.
• Develop and implement a donor stewardship plan, ensuring strategic, consistent, and donor stewardship by relationship managers.
• Create, develop, and write cases and funding opportunities to best support high-net-worth donors, with particular focus on investments beyond general-purpose or undesignated gifts.
• Collaborate with Finance and Program teams to co-develop the resulting budgets, proposals, and reports.
• Lead strategies related to curated donor experiences, such as donor events and recognition opportunities.
• As appropriate, build donor journey maps to best engage CHV’s various giving levels; prioritize and promote those with the greatest need and opportunity.
• Partner with mass appeal fundraising teams in support of data segmentation and targeted campaigns to maximize engagement and giving.
• Ensure systems for gift fulfillment, receipting, and reporting are fully operational.
• Help foster a donor-driven lens across the philanthropy team.

Strategic Systems & Planning

• Develop the tactics to help fulfill a donor engagement plan focused on funding opportunities, recognition, and meaning.
• Partner with frontline fundraisers to implement logistical solutions that enhance donor interactions.
• Build systems for effective gift fulfillment and meaningful donor recognition.
• Partner with relationship leads to help manage systems for personalized and donor-centred communication
• Analyze donation data and adjust plans accordingly to meet financial goals for the organization.
• Ensure timely sharing of program updates for informed donor communications.
• Coordinate matching campaigns and improve systems for donor experience and fundraising efficiency.

Team & Organizational Leadership

• Lead Volunteer & Gifts-in-Kind and Donor Services teams to ensure cohesive, donor-centric operations.
• Manage and coach key team leads, fostering a culture of collaboration and long-term fundraising success.
• Champion a culture of philanthropy and contribute to strategic decisions as part of the Directors’ Leadership Team.
• Collaborate closely with Directors, Managers, and the entire Philanthropy team as an enabler, champion, and colleague.
• Build relationships with peers in Programs, Operations, Finance, and the executive office as needed to provide strategic value to CHV’s overall mission and ensure the role of philanthropy is understood and embraced.
• Help foster a culture of philanthropy across the organization.

This position has the opportunity to work a 9-day fortnight schedule most months of the year, where you’ll work longer days for 9 days and earn every other Friday off.

About the Director

A collaborative, adaptable, and optimistic leader will thrive in this new Director role. Someone with an entrepreneurial spirit and strong fundraising expertise, especially in donor engagement, recognition, and funding strategies, would be ideal.

Specifically, the ideal candidate possesses:

Education and Experience:

• Significant generalist fundraising experience with a knowledge and understanding across giving streams, such as major giving, annual giving fundraising, case development and proposal writing, and others.
• A background in donor engagement, recognition, and stewardship best practices would be particularly welcome.
• An understanding of fundraising data management, moves management, and trends in analytics and AI.
• Experience fundraising for social services organizations with a variety of programs and evolving priorities.
• Experience leading people and direct reports to success.
• Demonstrated project management skills; experience leading projects through their full cycle from identifying priorities, creating a plan, and executing on it.
• Strong administrative and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate vision and strategy into tactics and actions.
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to craft clear, engaging and donor-centered messaging across a variety of stewardship materials and channels.
• Some financial acumen and understanding of budget building and management.
• Undergraduate degree (preferred) or related experience and education.

Further, the following competencies & traits would position the Director for success:

• A strong alignment with CHV’s mission; a passion for issues facing youth overcoming homelessness.
• Fundamentally humane and authentic; they see themselves and others as whole people. Kind, generous, and thoughtful.
• Adaptable and thrives in ambiguity, yet keen to pursue clarity in designs and processes.
• An entrepreneurial mindset with an excitement and motivation to bring new ideas and creativity to established thinking.
• Exceptional strategic thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Strong budgeting, project management, and communication abilities.
• Ability to manage long-term plans while meeting short-term objectives.
• Assertiveness and persistence coupled with tact and diplomacy. Influential and motivating.
• A commitment to upholding principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and Truth and Reconciliation.
• A collaborative and confident leader, able to manage and support subject matter experts.
• Big-picture focused and visionary, while also grounded in execution, thoroughness, and detail.
• Strong emotional intelligence; low ego, takes responsibility for actions, owns mistakes, and seeks to improve.

Compensation

The successful candidate can expect a starting annual salary of between $83,389.40 and $100,482.20 depending on factors such as internally equity, experience, competencies, and education. Once hired, salaries are reviewed annually following the annual performance review and successful employees have the opportunity for their salary to increase, over time, up to the maximum of the pay band, currently $120,575.00.

Total Rewards

Beginning immediately, this position has excellent extended health and dental benefits for you, your spouse, and your children, including generous counselling benefits. During the first year, employees receive three weeks’ paid vacation, increasing to four in the second year. We have paid sick leave, paid personal leave, a registered pension plan, investment in professional development, and more. If you’d like more information on what we offer, please ask!

We were recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers in 2024!

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Covenant House Vancouver is a secular organization that welcomes and serves young people from all backgrounds. While the international federation to which we belong was founded in the 1970s by members of the Catholic Church, we are not aligned with any specific faith traditions.

CHV is committed to upholding diversity, equity, and inclusion in our workplace. We actively encourage applications from members of groups with historical and/or current barriers to equity, including, but not limited to:

• Persons from groups marginalized due to race, ancestry, colour, religion/spiritual beliefs, or place of origin;
• Persons with visible (physical) and/or invisible (mental) disabilities;
• Persons who identify as women;
• Persons of marginalized sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions; and
• Indigenous persons.

We recognize that many of these identities intersect and that therefore, diversity, equity, and inclusion can be complex. We value the contributions that each person brings and are committed to ensuring full and equal participation for all at Covenant House Vancouver.

We love what we do and try to make a difference every day. Covenant House Vancouver offers a competitive salary with a great benefits package and excellent opportunity for training and career advancement. If you are looking to join a place where we have a purpose and aim to achieve positive outcomes, please join us by applying.